For me it’s Motorola G72. It’s excellent for the price. The phone is super lightweight despite having a 5,000 milliamper battery. The UI is very snappy and animations are very smooth (high refresh rate). It supports double tap on the back plus all other neat Motorola gestures. The under display fingerprint scanner works extremely well.
The android community, especially on /r/android is/was intensely hostile towards Motorola for no good reason. It’s basically just a Pixel/Samsung circlejerk, anything less than a flagship from those line is spit on.
Motorola’s lines have been very solid midrange phones, shipping with near-stock android, unlockable bootloaders, and just all around respectable specs for their price. They were also shipping aux ports/SD card slots for way, way longer than the others until very recently.
And before someone says “update speed”, not everyone cares. Most just want something stable.
There’s pretty good reason to avoid Motorola. It’s just not great value. Getting a 6th gen Pixel a-series will give you a device with a 5-year software lifespan. Moto on the other hand abandons their devices as soon as they can. The Pixel might not be the same price but when on sale it could be pretty close. I used to recommend Moto to people who couldn’t or didn’t want to spend much on a smartphone. These days I tell them to find a cheap Pixel a-series instead.
Motorola was great before Lenovo bought them… Used to be a bit of a fan until they fucked me over trying not to honor the warranty. Sent my phone in for repair, they claimed the screen was broken and I’d have to pay hundreds for a replacement. I asked for proof, they sent me a photo. The phone in the photo was the entirely wrong color even. Took weeks of repeat calling and a very stern letter to finally get them to honor the warranty. Stuff like this puts companies on my “blocklist” permanently. They will never get my money again
I’d imagine that’s country-specific. Out here in India, Pixel doesn’t seem to have an official presence so all you can get is unofficially sold variants that don’t have the same warranty cover. Motorola has manufacturing plants here so they’re surprisingly cost effective. For reference, I paid the equivalent of $290 for a g82 5G brand new
You’re most likely right on the country-specific presence of the Pixel.
Because Mororola is owned by Lenovo now, and lots of people dislike Lenovo. Their questionable ethics aside, Motorola phones have now become very average, a shadow of what the phones used to be like back in their heyday. Remember the revolutionary Moto X? With the custom voice processor and voice actions that didn’t drain battery, that satisfying dimple at the back, the soft-touch customisable body, the form factor which was neither too big nor too small, the OS - it was all perfect. But ever since Lenovo took over, the phones have become very unremarkable.
As for update speed - sure, not everyone cares, but r/c Android does, because most of us are techies and we care about this stuff. Trying to claim that updates aren’t important in these circles will only get pitchforks aimed at you.
The Pixel a series I don’t see in public much. Usually comes months after the main Pixels come out, but the specs you get for the price point is insane. Also the fact you have top tier custom ROM support. This is the part where I shill that you should run GrapheneOS or CalyxOS.
Pixel As in general seem to have better rom support, for example, Pixel 3a is one of the few devices with all ubuntu touch features working, while pixel 3 isnt even supported
Yeah the trade in deals are sometimes insane too.
I went from the 3a to the 6a and they had a $300 trade in deal. So I ended up only paying $150 and also got a pair of the pixel earbuds which are normally like $100 on their own. Insane deal.
The trade in deal doesn’t seem to exist for the 7a right now tho, so idk when it comes out. Shame cuz I wanted that dope red colored 7a. The 6a is still really good for now though, just wish it had wireless charging.
Pixel 5A, headphone jack and graphene os. Never seen anyone else using it, but it’s a trooper.
Will banking apps run without complaint?
Most of them yeah. I won’t lie, not all of them will. GrapheneOS did a small little faq writeup that can explain better then I can https://grapheneos.org/usage#banking-apps
In Canada I’ve seen a massive uptick in seeing Pixel’s in public in the last year or two
Samsung Galaxy XCover 6Pro
Headphone jack, micro SD slot, dual sim, user removable battery, notification led, ip68, 120hz display and the rubber/plastic back and sides feels great in hand. Also costs around $600
Wow, i wasn’t aware of this phone until I saw this comment. It reminds me of the Galaxy S5 active.
I’ve been rocking it for a month or 2 now and it is the best! I’m able to watch YouTube in bed, while charging, with wired earbuds. On a trip I was able to swap out the battery instead of recharging.
It is also SIGNIFICANTLY faster than the xcover pro and has way better battery life. A world of a difference.
I just wish I could find an external charger for the spare battery. I had one for my previous device but can’t find one for the XCover
I had the xcover pro prior to getting the xcover 6 and the batteries are the same size, so I just use the charger/dock I got for the xcover pro. There are definitely battery chargers out there, but even the one I got I wasn’t 100% confident it was legit until i had it in my hands.
I think the ASUS Zenfone has been pretty decent. Great battery, good form factor and has a headphone jack.
What turns people off is the two year updates, so unless you plan on switching to custom roms, its security lifetime is limited.
I was looking for this. once I went to zenfone, I never looked back. superb build quality, an insane amount of resources built in, and lineageOS or /e/ ready! hands down, best prones ever!
I’ve never used a Zenfone but a friend of mine is rocking a ROG phone 2. It’s the only phone I’ve ever seen with a display better than Samsungs. It’s also very fast and the stereo speakers are insanely good. I really wish to buy an Asus sometime but for now my Motorola Edge 20 Pro is too good to be replaced anytime soon.
The moto g 5g is an outstanding budget phone with loads of features. It’s compatible with Google’s virtual assistant voice answering service which is honestly a lifesaver that’s stopped me from hearing so much spam.
The pixel 3. In Shenzhen can buy a completely new one (unsold units sent back from western stores) for $70 and it’s very good. Perfect size, great screen, fast, lightweight. Newer phones are too big and heavy. Shame that Google decided to stop making updates so you need to use a custom ROM - just need to make sure that it was not destined to Verizon stores otherwise the bootloader is locked. Luckily the seller kept separate “from Europe” and “from USA” labels on the table. Thinking to buy one for all of my relatives
Sadly the Pixel 3 is no longer getting security updates. Which custom ROMs mitigate a bit. But graphene OS has stopped supporting it. So if you’re very security sensitive you probably want to stick with a phone that’s still getting updates. That being said I love my Pixel 3A. Just sad it’s not " safe anymore "
The e-waste treadmill of phones is really disappointing. I would love for a legislator to come along perhaps the EU, and say if you stop releasing security updates you must open source the drivers. So the community can take over
